Is the process so complex... that it needs to be done remotely ?
Complexity probably isn't the main issue. If you are in a remote area this feature makes a lot of sense. For example, you are driving in the middle of nowhere and the wonderfully descriptive 'check engine' light comes on. You are concerned about driving farther because you don't know what's wrong and don't want to cause further damage. This feature could tell you a) it's the $FOO sensor acting up, go ahead and drive or b) the $BAR actuator is broken, call a tow truck.
If not, couldn't they put in a mechanism in the car itself, where at the press of a button, all the diagnostics would be run, and a report generated and shown in a panel or something like that.
What is the average Joe Motorist going to do with that information? Why would automakers go to the additional expense of installing such display panels when the report can (and should) be sent to someone who actually knows how to read it?
Even if *you* block a range of IP addresses, someone operating a computer on one of those IP addresses could still connect with your server simply by going through a proxy not blocking them, but which you have not also blocked. Given that blocking a national range of IP addresses provides no real security from a marginally determined and capable attacker... also saves no bandwidth since the filtering happens at the receiving server after the packets have travelled through the network.
This response is rather typical for/.: "this [technique|tool|idea] doesn't solve everyone's problems all at once so it is obviously of absolutely no use to anyone". That is an incredibly myopic viewpoint. Ever hear of defense-in-depth?
Granted, bile-balls could be thrown around rather like invective - and to the same effect - so I guess it makes sense regardless of the Freudian-slip-iness of phrase.
If they would put Firefox, OpenOffice, and other nifty open source software in the extra space on those CDs, people would keep them around instead of throwing them in the trash.
1) Why would AOL distribute apps that they don't control or support?
2) Those CDs would quickly become dated as new versions are released. Geeks wouldn't keep them around because they can generally download what they need.
3) Not to stereotype, but do you think the typical user who is interested in AOL dial-up service is also going to be interested in trying new/different open source apps?
4) Would this typical AOL user be remotely interested in the philospohical arguments behind F/OSS or even care that those arguments exist?
Oddly enough, there are situations where F/OSS is not the answer. People that try to push F/OSS where it doesn't belong are at best wasting their (and others') time; at worst they are being counterproductive and hindering F/OSS adoption with their zealotry.
were cheesed? Except for the Virginia Hams who had exceptionally salty language for the power companies. The country Hams were milder in their criticism and the baked Hams didn't even notice.
Whether it's Carpal Tunnel, Blackberry Thumb or iPod Ear,
you can find out all about it here at
Health-Hack.com
"The Health Portal for Computer Users and Abusers"(TM)
Then I cringed and glanced at the article. It's essentially a two-page intro to a Google-cached Seattle Times article. I'll save you the trouble of going to H-H.com:
Ok so what of the academic ideals of spreading knowledge and learning? This is a result of american school industry.. It is unfortunate that learning has become a profit commodity for a privileged few in what is supposed to be a land of equality and opportunity for all...
Explain, please, how the introduction of this DRM e-book diminishes or eliminates availability of the following:
- libraries, which are generally cost-free to the user, can provide access to books, magazines, technical/medical journals, and the Internet (Note: rants about Ashcroft, et al are irrelevant here)
- bookstores selling inexpensive new books (e.g. paperback)
- bookstores selling used books, often at a small fraction of the original price
- information available on reputable web sites (for access issues see Libraries)
People that want to learn will find a way. Whether that learning takes place inside or outside the halls of academia depends on the individual.
Besides, if you had read even the first paragraph of The Fine Article, you would have seen this:
When students at Princeton University, the University of Utah and eight other colleges start combing their school bookstore shelves for fall semester textbooks, they'll find a new alternative to the hard-covered tomes they're used to buying. (Emphasis mine)
No one is required to buy the e-books, so your classist argument falls rather flat.
With the affordability of laptops I opted to purchase my child one as opposed to an Xbox or PS2. My thinking was it allowed him not only to play games, but also familiarize himself with the keyboard, internet, word processing program, etc.
Which is great, but does he carry it back+forth to school and/or use it during class? I believe that's the more specific topic under discussion. From the article:
But with laptop prices coming down, children's demands heating up and parents' urge to provide all they can to further their child's education, it's likely more families are toying with the idea of buying portable computing devices for their kids.
The headline should probably read "When Should Your Kid Start Using a Laptop in School?" or similar.
My completely computer illiterate girlfriends mother really struggles to use iPhoto. And why wouldn't she? In order to get the pictures off the camera she has to find the right wire, make sure its connected in the right socket, makes sure the camera is on (this always confuses her) and then has to eject the camera before she can disconnect it. She has mastered albums, but can't do keywords. She can't burn a CD of her favourites to take down Boots to get it printed without my help.
If she finds those tasks confusing, perhaps you could put together a couple of cheat sheets for her - complete with pictures of the connectors, screen shots, etc. - so she doesn't have to struggle. I imagine both of them (girlfriend, mother) would appreciate it. It sounds like your dad could use something like that, too.
Like many/.ers, I provide tech support for immediate and extended family. I've made short guides for various tasks and they seem to be rather well received. YMMV.
The problem, I think is that although for you the lynchpin of the argument is whether or not the government seized Indymedia's hard drives, that's not really the issue at stake.
Yes, that is the issue at stake: though they ended up with the drives in their possession, the FBI did not seize the drives.
We're not outraged that the government borrowed Indymedia's hardware for a week,
Think back to the original discussion (when the first story was posted to/.): that was the source of the outrage in a nutshell.
we're outraged that they, in cooperation with an independent server company, blatantly violated the reasonable expectation of privacy of a whole bunch of totally innocent people.
Except they didn't. They asked for the logs; Indymedia violated the reasonable expectation of privacy by handing over much more than was requested. The targeted request for specific logs was not the issue IMO.
It's not really the hard drives that are the issue - the only thing on those drives that would interest the government in the first place was the logs...everything else is publicly available web content!
True - that's why the request was worded as it was.
What if the FBI had hacked into Indymedia to secretly monitor their logs, so that Indymedia never had a second of downtime and got to keep all their hardware. Would that undermine our argument about privacy and freedom of speech?
While it's good to find out what happened, and I'm willing to admit that we were wrong about the drives being taken, it really doesn't change the core problem here.
My point was that the foil-hat crowd soiled themselves when they saw the original story and were positive the FBI was a bunch of jackbooted thugs, etc; now that Indymedia has been identified as the reason for the excessive disclosure we shall hear nary a peep from/. [re: the behavior of the ISP]. That's all, really. Cheers!
After all, everybody makes mistakes from time to time...
Quite true. I'm sure we can now expect all those/. reactionaries who decried this as an act of totali-Big-Brother-tari-fascism to show up to retract their erroneous statements...
You may purchase this paper on-line in.pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery.
I didn't buy the paper, but would like to make one point:
As long as the culture in the US continues to denigrate academic achievement and to glorify ignorance, this country will continue to fall behind the rest of the world in research and invention.
Why would you call your music Nerdcore or geeksta rap? I mean that just begs to be not taken seriously.
Umm, I think that's the point. Besides, 'nerdcore' is an absolutely hilarious word. I picture the Unix guys and Windows guys having a multi-year beef, rather like the East Coast and West Coast rap contingents, complete with Run-DMC-style poses. (The old farts^W fogeys in the audience should feel free to substitute 'Sharks' and 'Jets' - pretty much the same thing.)
It's like a country/western singer calling their music 'Redneck rock' or pop calling it's self 'teen drivel'
Terms like that are reserved for those outside the genre, i.e. everyone with musical taste.:-)
The player is 24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of your finger or various small items)
I don't know about the rest of the non-gigantism population, but the tips of my fingers are rather smaller than one cubic inch.
For scale: early in the movie 'Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban', Harry causes his b*tchy aunt to inflate and blow away like a balloon. Her finger was the first part to inflate; when she holds it up, the tip of the finger appears to be about 1" in diameter.
To sum up: normal finger tips are not 1" in diameter.
Starting yesterday (Sunday), Staples is selling the Linksys BEFW11S4 802.11b AP/router (w/ 4-port switch) for $9.94. Linksys 802.11b Cardbus adapters are now $4.94. Please note these items are 802.11b only. (I imagine they are trying to clear out the older gear.) These prices are for in-store purchases only. I picked up a couple of each for spares - in a pinch 802.11b is 802.11better_than_nothing.:-)
I'm not affiliated with Staples or Linksys except as a customer.
Yeah, well, I thought it was funny that a bunch of intelligent (to hear them tell it) journalists engaged in an email cluster-f**k without realizing what was up.
True - that is pretty amusing. Perhaps my funny detector was on the fritz.
Silly anecdote: ~6 years ago I was the sole Sun server admin at a large scientific research facility. I got a call one day from a Ph.D (Physics) who was having trouble with his SPARC20 desktop machine. I had some free time and went along to help him. When I got there he said it wasn't recognizing the tape drive. When I asked what he had done previously, he said "Well, it was configured like this..." and proceeded to disassemble a chain of about four SCSI devices while everything was powered on and running.
The moral of the story: some people may be brilliant in their specialties but completely useless in other areas.:-)
Also, a bunch of technically illiterate people hit 'reply to all' instead of 'reply to'.
Yep, this is the crux of the matter. One might think that the denizens of/. *looks at submitter* would know and be inclined to point out the difference. We certainly nitpick about everything else.:-)
It can be part of a backup technique...
on
Basics of RAID
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Ultimately, what it comes down to is that mirroring merely makes the hardware more reliable, it is not a backup technique.
It can be part of this nutritious breakfast^W^W backup technique:
0) shut down the box
1) swap a fresh/new/wiped drive for one of the mirrored drives
2) rebuild the RAID
3) store the just-pulled drive appropriately (e.g. off-site) along with a second identical RAID controller
Now if the machine goes completely belly-up (as in a fire) the user can install the secondary RAID controller and the data-laden drive in a fresh machine, add another fresh/new/wiped drive, and rebuild the RAID in the new machine. This may not be terribly convenient nor perfect for everyone but it will be effective.
Remember, kids: just because a particular technique doesn't perform a task all by itself (in this case RAID 1 != backup) that doesn't mean it can't be part of a larger picture.
Slashdot Mirror
Is the process so complex... that it needs to be done remotely ?
Complexity probably isn't the main issue. If you are in a remote area this feature makes a lot of sense. For example, you are driving in the middle of nowhere and the wonderfully descriptive 'check engine' light comes on. You are concerned about driving farther because you don't know what's wrong and don't want to cause further damage. This feature could tell you a) it's the $FOO sensor acting up, go ahead and drive or b) the $BAR actuator is broken, call a tow truck.
If not, couldn't they put in a mechanism in the car itself, where at the press of a button, all the diagnostics would be run, and a report generated and shown in a panel or something like that.
What is the average Joe Motorist going to do with that information? Why would automakers go to the additional expense of installing such display panels when the report can (and should) be sent to someone who actually knows how to read it?
An indicator light on the mouse lights up when the battery has less than 10% power left
I assume that the light goes off again when the battery level reaches 0?
No, there's a battery backup to keep the low/dead battery LED going in case the mouse battery dies.
Even if *you* block a range of IP addresses, someone operating a computer on one of those IP addresses could still connect with your server simply by going through a proxy not blocking them, but which you have not also blocked. Given that blocking a national range of IP addresses provides no real security from a marginally determined and capable attacker
This response is rather typical for
All your answers are in Teh Bile-Balllllllll!
Bile-ball == interesting (and somewhat disturbing) visual
Granted, bile-balls could be thrown around rather like invective - and to the same effect - so I guess it makes sense regardless of the Freudian-slip-iness of phrase.
If they would put Firefox, OpenOffice, and other nifty open source software in the extra space on those CDs, people would keep them around instead of throwing them in the trash.
1) Why would AOL distribute apps that they don't control or support?
2) Those CDs would quickly become dated as new versions are released. Geeks wouldn't keep them around because they can generally download what they need.
3) Not to stereotype, but do you think the typical user who is interested in AOL dial-up service is also going to be interested in trying new/different open source apps?
4) Would this typical AOL user be remotely interested in the philospohical arguments behind F/OSS or even care that those arguments exist?
Oddly enough, there are situations where F/OSS is not the answer. People that try to push F/OSS where it doesn't belong are at best wasting their (and others') time; at worst they are being counterproductive and hindering F/OSS adoption with their zealotry.
were cheesed? Except for the Virginia Hams who had exceptionally salty language for the power companies. The country Hams were milder in their criticism and the baked Hams didn't even notice.
It's okay - everyone involved has been cured.
It's like putting a gun to the head of the bacteria and pulling the trigger
Of course, they first make the bacteria an offer they can't refuse.
Leave the gun; take the cannoli^W crocodile.
I got this far...
Whether it's Carpal Tunnel, Blackberry Thumb or iPod Ear, you can find out all about it here at Health-Hack.com "The Health Portal for Computer Users and Abusers"(TM)
Then I cringed and glanced at the article. It's essentially a two-page intro to a Google-cached Seattle Times article. I'll save you the trouble of going to H-H.com:
Exploring the Frontiers of Life
Ok so what of the academic ideals of spreading knowledge and learning? This is a result of american school industry.. It is unfortunate that learning has become a profit commodity for a privileged few in what is supposed to be a land of equality and opportunity for all...
Explain, please, how the introduction of this DRM e-book diminishes or eliminates availability of the following:
- libraries, which are generally cost-free to the user, can provide access to books, magazines, technical/medical journals, and the Internet (Note: rants about Ashcroft, et al are irrelevant here)
- bookstores selling inexpensive new books (e.g. paperback)
- bookstores selling used books, often at a small fraction of the original price
- information available on reputable web sites (for access issues see Libraries)
People that want to learn will find a way. Whether that learning takes place inside or outside the halls of academia depends on the individual.
Besides, if you had read even the first paragraph of The Fine Article, you would have seen this:
When students at Princeton University, the University of Utah and eight other colleges start combing their school bookstore shelves for fall semester textbooks, they'll find a new alternative to the hard-covered tomes they're used to buying. (Emphasis mine)
No one is required to buy the e-books, so your classist argument falls rather flat.
With the affordability of laptops I opted to purchase my child one as opposed to an Xbox or PS2. My thinking was it allowed him not only to play games, but also familiarize himself with the keyboard, internet, word processing program, etc.
Which is great, but does he carry it back+forth to school and/or use it during class? I believe that's the more specific topic under discussion. From the article:
But with laptop prices coming down, children's demands heating up and parents' urge to provide all they can to further their child's education, it's likely more families are toying with the idea of buying portable computing devices for their kids.
The headline should probably read "When Should Your Kid Start Using a Laptop in School?" or similar.
My completely computer illiterate girlfriends mother really struggles to use iPhoto. And why wouldn't she? In order to get the pictures off the camera she has to find the right wire, make sure its connected in the right socket, makes sure the camera is on (this always confuses her) and then has to eject the camera before she can disconnect it. She has mastered albums, but can't do keywords. She can't burn a CD of her favourites to take down Boots to get it printed without my help.
If she finds those tasks confusing, perhaps you could put together a couple of cheat sheets for her - complete with pictures of the connectors, screen shots, etc. - so she doesn't have to struggle. I imagine both of them (girlfriend, mother) would appreciate it. It sounds like your dad could use something like that, too.
Like many
The problem, I think is that although for you the lynchpin of the argument is whether or not the government seized Indymedia's hard drives, that's not really the issue at stake.
Yes, that is the issue at stake: though they ended up with the drives in their possession, the FBI did not seize the drives.
We're not outraged that the government borrowed Indymedia's hardware for a week,
Think back to the original discussion (when the first story was posted to
we're outraged that they, in cooperation with an independent server company, blatantly violated the reasonable expectation of privacy of a whole bunch of totally innocent people.
Except they didn't. They asked for the logs; Indymedia violated the reasonable expectation of privacy by handing over much more than was requested. The targeted request for specific logs was not the issue IMO.
It's not really the hard drives that are the issue - the only thing on those drives that would interest the government in the first place was the logs...everything else is publicly available web content!
True - that's why the request was worded as it was.
What if the FBI had hacked into Indymedia to secretly monitor their logs, so that Indymedia never had a second of downtime and got to keep all their hardware. Would that undermine our argument about privacy and freedom of speech?
BZZZT! Absurd slippery slope argument: -5 points.
While it's good to find out what happened, and I'm willing to admit that we were wrong about the drives being taken, it really doesn't change the core problem here.
My point was that the foil-hat crowd soiled themselves when they saw the original story and were positive the FBI was a bunch of jackbooted thugs, etc; now that Indymedia has been identified as the reason for the excessive disclosure we shall hear nary a peep from
After all, everybody makes mistakes from time to time...
Quite true. I'm sure we can now expect all those
*crickets*
What we lose in scientific-ness, we more than make up for with our awesome Jesus-osity!
Well done, NineNine! We also would have accepted "scientificality".
I imagined your post read in the manner of a 1950s announcer: "Yes, that's one hundred percent US of A, now with added Jesus-osity!".
You may purchase this paper on-line in
I didn't buy the paper, but would like to make one point:
As long as the culture in the US continues to denigrate academic achievement and to glorify ignorance, this country will continue to fall behind the rest of the world in research and invention.
Why would you call your music Nerdcore or geeksta rap? I mean that just begs to be not taken seriously.
Umm, I think that's the point. Besides, 'nerdcore' is an absolutely hilarious word. I picture the Unix guys and Windows guys having a multi-year beef, rather like the East Coast and West Coast rap contingents, complete with Run-DMC-style poses. (The old farts^W fogeys in the audience should feel free to substitute 'Sharks' and 'Jets' - pretty much the same thing.)
It's like a country/western singer calling their music 'Redneck rock' or pop calling it's self 'teen drivel'
Terms like that are reserved for those outside the genre, i.e. everyone with musical taste.
That's nice, but why link to ThinkSecret when Apple's iBook page has much more detailed information?
The player is 24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of your finger or various small items)
I don't know about the rest of the non-gigantism population, but the tips of my fingers are rather smaller than one cubic inch.
For scale: early in the movie 'Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban', Harry causes his b*tchy aunt to inflate and blow away like a balloon. Her finger was the first part to inflate; when she holds it up, the tip of the finger appears to be about 1" in diameter.
To sum up: normal finger tips are not 1" in diameter.
/ pulled a muscle reaching for that comparison
Just being unbearably pendantic.
Just being unbearably what now?
Fewer ads 'n' whatnot: Clicky.
Starting yesterday (Sunday), Staples is selling the Linksys BEFW11S4 802.11b AP/router (w/ 4-port switch) for $9.94. Linksys 802.11b Cardbus adapters are now $4.94. Please note these items are 802.11b only. (I imagine they are trying to clear out the older gear.) These prices are for in-store purchases only. I picked up a couple of each for spares - in a pinch 802.11b is 802.11better_than_nothing.
I'm not affiliated with Staples or Linksys except as a customer.
Yeah, well, I thought it was funny that a bunch of intelligent (to hear them tell it) journalists engaged in an email cluster-f**k without realizing what was up.
True - that is pretty amusing. Perhaps my funny detector was on the fritz.
Silly anecdote: ~6 years ago I was the sole Sun server admin at a large scientific research facility. I got a call one day from a Ph.D (Physics) who was having trouble with his SPARC20 desktop machine. I had some free time and went along to help him. When I got there he said it wasn't recognizing the tape drive. When I asked what he had done previously, he said "Well, it was configured like this..." and proceeded to disassemble a chain of about four SCSI devices while everything was powered on and running.
The moral of the story: some people may be brilliant in their specialties but completely useless in other areas.
Also, a bunch of technically illiterate people hit 'reply to all' instead of 'reply to'.
Yep, this is the crux of the matter. One might think that the denizens of
Ultimately, what it comes down to is that mirroring merely makes the hardware more reliable, it is not a backup technique.
It can be part of this nutritious breakfast^W^W backup technique:
0) shut down the box
1) swap a fresh/new/wiped drive for one of the mirrored drives
2) rebuild the RAID
3) store the just-pulled drive appropriately (e.g. off-site) along with a second identical RAID controller
Now if the machine goes completely belly-up (as in a fire) the user can install the secondary RAID controller and the data-laden drive in a fresh machine, add another fresh/new/wiped drive, and rebuild the RAID in the new machine. This may not be terribly convenient nor perfect for everyone but it will be effective.
Remember, kids: just because a particular technique doesn't perform a task all by itself (in this case RAID 1 != backup) that doesn't mean it can't be part of a larger picture.
then the view thus far is crappy.
1) Longhorn has been changed to Vista.
2) Vista means 'view'.
3) It's still a long way off - and it was called Longhorn, so we wouldn't be out of line calling it 'Long View'.
4) 'Long View' is a song by the band Green Day.
5) Green Day released an album called 'Dookie'.
6) Dookie is a slang term for feces (i.e. crap).
Hey, you're right!